A Little Bit of Learning.......

 I have found that earning is often shunted in to categories by just about everyone.
Clearly we have the standard 'school learning' then we have 'home learning' and within those groups we have many differing categories that we all identify with.

In fact I know I try to incorporate various 'subjects' together to cover what I am trying to present to the children. It makes it more real and enjoyable I believe in this format.

The more I have 'lived' a home education lifestyle with our family, the more I find we are really 'living this life'.
So much of what we do is incorporated into daily living that it's often impossible to tell where 'home education starts and living' starts.

In the last year we have especially grown in the area of Homesteading for a better word. This is a part of our daily routine and while sometimes we can have a few complainers about the chores that come with this, there have been many educational advantages as well.

For aren't we preparing our children for the real world, where they have to go out and live. They need to be able to recognise work as a ethic to be valued-something I think that is sorely missing in many of today's youth.

What better way than to recognise that all people need food, shelter,  basic sanitation and quality of life.
I mean really isn't' that why people go to work, to provide those things for themselves and their families?

We have branched out in our 'Homesteading' this past year. We have focused a lot on the animals we can grow to provide food and small opportunities for selling or barter.

We also have created an orchard this year, all in pots though until we find our final homestead. I have only in the past been interested in the typical stone fruits and European fruits we are familiar with, but with our interest in foraging for food  we have added quite a few native edibles that are so interesting to see and use.

Reading is and has always been a  huge part of our home learning.  I will admit I have been lax in insisting our younger children have 'assigned reading' so  this year I am trying to implement this again with them.
The choices are probably not going to be what the older children had but the insistence of 1 hour of assigned reading per day will be.

Again reading aloud is a much loved part of our learning and to get us started this year we will be adding these books to our daily routine. Sometimes it is hard to not just choose a  book because I had such fun reading it to the older ones. which also means trying to read to the younger crowd interesting. 

Introducing new books to our 'home learning' while trying to share those old treasured favourites can be a difficult decision for us all - especially as the older ones try to share their favourites with the younger ones.

Self Sufficiency is essentially part of what we are trying to achieve and to that end we were extremely pleased with our efforts to finally get to eat 'bunny bits' as we called them.
We have been raising meat rabbits for a good part of the year and while they can be prolific that diseases they can contract can entirely wipe out all the work you have put into it.

So again that allows us and the children real opportunities to see that hard work does not always produce the results you are looking for- life lessons that are so important in this world that expects things for nothing or even just because we have  poured our hearts and souls into it.

There is something about being able to cook on the barbie that seems like a rite of passage to me. Mind you in our family there are a few who can actually cook and some who we try to keep from inflicting charcoal on us all.

Looking at this from a real life perspective though it is also about being open to allowing children to grow in skills and responsibilities that help them achieve their own goals and ambitions while still allowing them the opportunity to  be children.

Therefore  this year will indeed be a great year of learning not only for the children but also for the rest of us as we grow and learn along side them.

Our Wilderness School will continue to be a major part of our lives as we continue to learn about our environment and how to successfully live in it, both in being able to provide food, shelter, and other real life living for the prosperity of our family and to being able to have members of our family to contribute to the community and the good of our world.

And now a  small reminder that I have my St Valentine's Day eBook ready for Sale - only $14:99 AUD and $11:83 USD
Please consider buying  this for your family before the coming feast day.
It has some lovely traditions to start with your family. Also decorating, colouring pages, recipes and activities to do together to bring more meaning to your St Valentine's Day

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Table Time Learning - while we have Breakfast!!!

Each morning as we eat our breakfast together I start our learning with some basics to get us started.
We have had this 'table time' learning for years, although I admit there are times where we lose our rhythm and don't do it in it's entirety.

I do find that I love this time and it has evolved over time too to suit what we are doing and the children who are participating.

I would like to share what we are doing each 'table time' at the moment.
The pile of books above are our standard read alouds for learning virtues, The 24 Family Ways, Australian Nature, The Saint of the Day, a short reading from one of our Saint books  and the daily prayer from the Missal.

We read from the 24 family ways first - memorising the verse and bible verses.
Then we read from the Saint of the Day form one of our varied books.
Next up is a virtue from God's Wisdom for Little Boys and God's Wisdom for Little Girls and writing the chosen virtue up along with the 24 Family Way so we can work on those virtues through out the day.
Then we read from one of our short stories about the life of a Saint.

The  Nature Study we do is a little each day from Amy Mack's  A Bush Calendar.

I read a little each day from the monthly readings and we look up the mentioned native flowers, trees and bird life in our Nature Field Guides.

After this we move on to praying for our day together and using as our final prayer the prayer from our Missal for the day.

After this we go through our various additional extras.
I ask each of the younger children to say aloud the  name of the day and they take turns to change it on our Daily Wheel as well as the Seasonal and Monthly wheel.

We also have a little card that tells the name of the day  on our wooden stand. Our Liturgical colour is changed as needed for the season we are in and our little elementals are displayed here too.

Then we read aloud the Poem from the  Elsa Beskow - Around the Year that I have written out and changed the name of the month to suit our Southern Hemisphere seasons.

 Next up is the poem I have selected from the monthly plans I had prepared earlier in the year and we read it aloud again with the children.

 We then move on to this little part of naming the numerical date, the month, the season of the year.

 As we try to cover not only the seasonal aspect of our lives but also the Liturgical side too.
We have a new picture to remind us of the Liturgical month we are in.

Our Art Appreciation is briefly covered here as well.
I ask the children to look at the art I selected earlier in the year as well and to study it so they can relate back to me what they observe and on Friday they draw the painting as best they can.
I try to have a new painting each week, but it doesn't always work out that way.

Again I have a little seasonal display for us to see through out our day.

A seasonal picture and mini items that reflect the season we are currently in.

 And sometimes because I love these little displays I add another one to our home.

 Each season I turn the pages of our various Gerda Muller books that have beautiful scenes that show children enjoying the season that the book is about.

 Last of all we  have the Tasha Tudor Around the Year book that we progress through seasonally.

After all of this we recite the times tables, and skip counting aloud together and any other sight words or counting that we need to cover.

During this, well towards the start of it, we are eating our breakfast.
I manage bites as we go through this process J

I am so very thankful we can have this time together each day to start us off on the right foot in our learning journey and I know that the children learn from it when we are consistent.

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Friday Nature Study

After my Summertime reading and while I was planning for this year of learning, I was determined we would have a regular, hopefully weekly Field Trip to one of the many areas around our local community.
I also wanted to incorporate more Nature Study into our daily lives with closer observations of our own backyard with both the wild animals and our domestic ones as well as the flora that we have growing here.

One of the best ways I have found in having a little 'nature lesson' in our day is to read from A Bush Calender - by Amy Mack at our Table Time Reading that we do while having breakfast.
From a small daily reading and the list of blooming flowers and birds arriving and leaving each month, we then consult our other field guides for visual confirmation of what we have been reading.

I must admit that the children really have enjoyed this little bit of a 'nudge' and have been observing more than usual as well as asking more questions- which is very exciting in my opinion.

So on Friday we made another trip to the Wagga Botanical Gardens and Zoo  to observe and record in our Nature Journals.

We decided before we left that we would look at the Chinese Garden and we would all chose the same  animal to draw.

There were quite a few Japonica Camellia, Camellia, Azalea  and Reticulata   as well as some bamboo and others we didn't know.

I just love these beautiful variations of pink blossoms

Once we actually reached the center of the Chinese Garden we sat down to a light picnic lunch .
Consisting of the left over Dragon Bread from the celebration of St George the previous day

Those of us following the Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle ate before we came however.

After lunch it was on to the drawing side of things.
I loved how Rogan was helping Arwen with her drawing

She is recovering quite well from her broken arm, that post is still in drafts :), but still isn't using it very much.

Everyone chose a different flower or tree to draw and started on them right away.

Don't you love the same stance on these two children?

A very proud Arwen with her flower drawing

I turned around and found this perfect photo opportunity

Hey mummy look at me!!!

The children loved the little pond and they found a small frog hiding in a hole of that large rock.

Of course I'm sure we weren't supposed to pick any flowers but Moran always needs flowers in her hair and then I am usually gifted some too.

After the flower garden we went around to the Zoo section and decided to draw one of the goats that are in the enclosure

Did I mention that I was drawing too.
I wanted to be able to be an example of participating in the love and appreciation of nature.
Truly I am not gifted in this area at all and so find it difficult to do this.
But isn't that what we are asking of the children when we ask them to do something and learn from the experience?

Just lately I have been impressed with how long Arwen has been sticking with her drawing she has been absolutely loving her  Art for Kids lessons and is choosing to stick with a hard project much longer than I though she would.
She did this with drawing her goat as well.
All the other kids had finished and run off but she stayed with it till she was satisfied.

As we were leaving these geese were right in our path and I just adore geese.
I can't wait to add them to our poultry flock.

As we got back in the van (without going to the playground nearby, which was a  miracle in itself) Corbyn showed me his collections of feathers and flowers with great delight.

I think we really need to keep this up as it was a great way to spend a few hours and the time sped by.
I couldn't believe how long we had been out doing our Nature Study.

Blessings to you and your homes,